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7 

V 

nEVELOPINff ^^,__..„i — ■ 

THE CHARACTER AND VIEWS 



OF THE 



HARTFORD CONVENTION: 



BT 

/ 

« ONE OF THE CONVENTION." 

/- • 



riRST PUBLISHED VS THE NATIONAL INTELLIGEKCEH, IK 

JAirUAKT 1820. .^• 



WASHINGTON: 

1820. 



^361 
.1 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 



There exists no special inducement that should 
render the writer of the following letters 
more anxious than any othermember of the Hart- 
ford Convention to become its champion. But, 
as it may be natural to enquire wherefore the pub- 
lication of the private journal has been so long 
delayed and why this moment U selected for call- 
ins to it the public attention I have !k» objectioi> 
to gratify a reasonable curiosity. 

In the winter session of Congress of / 8 17-18, I 
became acquainted Avith many respectable and 
eminent men of the late administration party, and 
frequently conversed with ihern upon the course 
of measures and the views and state of parties in 
the Eastern States during the war ; with an un- 
reservedness on Ijoth sides, which, in that period 
of ardent controversy, had been forbidden by the 
total alienation of social feeling among persons of 
contradictory politics. In these conversations / 
first became persuaded that the clamors raised 
a.t^ainst the Convention (^<t non vi sed sc^pe ca- 
dendo," and which the members of that body had 
treated with silent contempt,) had made a pro- 
found impression upon many intelligent minds. 
On one of those occasions, a gentleman of emi- 
nent character and station gave me to understand 
that however individuals having access to the true 
sources of information, might be made satisfied 
of the innoxiousness of that assembly, yet the ge- 
neral propensity to suspicion in relation to their 
proceedings, would not subside, until the secret 
journal should be brought to light. — It is a most 



solemn truth, that, from the epoch of the dissolu- 
tion of the Convention to that moment, not a 
thought of that journal or its contents had been in 
my mind. I had no recollection, (nor have I at 
this moment) of having ever inspected its pages, 
while it was in progress ; and of so little moment 
was its fate in my estimation, that I had forgotten 
the disposal made of it by the Convention, and pre- 
sumed it was left with the Secretary. There 
was no hesitation however on my part, in pledging 
myself that it should be forthcoming, under a full 
persuasion that the members could have no ob- 
jection to publish to the world all that was said or 
done in that Convention. I forthwith wrote to 
Mr. Dwight, then at New- York, requesting infor- 
mation of its depository. That gentleman, being 
ronfin^H hv sickncss, was obliR:ed to defer a re- 

^ — . -J , ^ ^ - ' 

ply for several weeks, and then reminded me ot 
its being left, by order of the Convention, with the 
venerable late President, George Cabot. In an 
interview with this gentleman, (whose name in 
the minds of those who know him is ever associ- 
ated with all the virtues which can adorn the cha- 
racter of man} I apprized him of my conviction, 
resulting from the above mentioned conversations, 
of the expediency of making the journal accessi- 
ble to public inspection He readily assented to 
the opinion, but observed that, as it had been depo- 
sited with him pursuant to a vote of the Conven- 
tion, and kept in its original envelope, he conceiv- 
ed that respect for the surviving members re- 
quired that their consent should be had to a change 
of its destination In the course of the Summer 
I met with four other members, at different times, 
who agreed to the proposed disposition of the 
journal, and suggested that the original should be 
sent to the Executive of Massachusetts, and depo- 
sited among the public records. In the month of 
October following, with the approbation of the 
late President, the following circular letter was 
written by me, and a copy sent to each surviving 



member living in situations remote from cadi 
other. 

« Dear Sir : It has occurred to me that justice 
to the States represented in the late Hart- 
ford Convention seems to require that the pri- 
vate journal of their proceedings should be 
deposited in some place to which access may 
be had by any person disposed to give them 
publicity. You need not be informed of the 
disposition of a numerous class, to impute 
to that Convention projects that would not 
bear the light, and to produce if possible a gene- 
ral opinion that the things which are seen aiford 
no clue to the unholy mysteries ofour conclave. 
While as individuals we regard these efforts with 
unconcern, we ought not perhaps to be indifter- 
cntto the effects of an erroneous public opinion on 
this subject upon the present age and posterity ; 
if the mere unvarnished journal would be suffici- 
ent for its correction. Mr. Cabot, Mr. Prescot, 
and other members in this vicinity concur in these 
sentiments, and if you should be content that we 
may make such a disposition of that journal as 
may be thought best for the object here express- 
ed, I request of you the favor to signify your 
acquiescence by a line to Mr. Cabot with conve- 
nient despatch." — Signed, — • 

From all these persons thus written to, (except 
two who made no reply that ever came to hand,) 
answers were duly returned, giving a full and un- 
qualified assent to the proposal contained in the 
letter— one of these answers is subjoined, as a spe- 
cimen of the spirit of the whole of them, and is se- 
lected merely for its conciseness. 

Providence^ JVov. 6th, \B\S. 
" Sir : I received a letter a few days since from 

Mr. informing me that it was the opinion 

of the gentlemen in Boston who were mem- 

1 # 



bers of the Hartford Convention, that the pri- 
vate journal of that convention ought to be de- 
posited in some public place, where it may- 
be kept in safety, and at the same time be 
accessible to those who might hereafter wish 
to form a correct estimate of the motives by 
which they were influenced. I most sincerely- 
con cide with the gentlemen in Boston who form- 
ed so respectable a part of that body, and I wish that 
the American people may at some future period 
be truly informed of every thing that was thought, 
said, or done, on that momentous occasion ; they 
will then be able to decide who were the real 
friends to the constitution and liberties of our 
country. 
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, 

your obedient servant, 

D. LYMAN." 

Honorable George Cabot, 

After receiving these answers, Mr. Cabot trans- 
mitted the book to the Governor of Massachu- 
setts, accompanied by the following letter : 

ii Boston, Dec. 17, 1818. 
« Sir . The Hartford Convention having given 
to the public the result of all their proceedings, 
left in my hands their original journal. The ul- 
timate disposal oi this document did not appear 
so important as to require their particular di- 
rection ; unwilling however to leave it in the 
event of my decease to the chances which may 
befal private papers, I have concluded, with the 
concurrence of my associates, that it would with 
prooriety be placed in the archives of the State 
which first recommended the meeting of the Con- 
vention. Accordingly, I have to request your 
Excellency's permission to deposit it in the office 
of the Secretary of this Commonwealth. 

1 have the honor to be, with the highest con- 



sider^tion and respect, your Excellency's most 

obedient servant, 

GEO. CABOT." 

His Excellency Governor Brooks. 

This transaction happened during my second 
absence f^-om Boston, an'l upon my return I ob- 
tained the certified copy which I have now given 
to the Editors of the National Intelligencer. 

ONE OF THE CONVENTION-. 



HARTFORD CONVENTION. 



LETTER I. 



TO THE EDITORS OF THE NATIOITAL INTELLIGENCER. 

Gentlemen : 

I herewith send you an attested copy of the 
private journal of the convention he'.d at Hart- 
ford during me late war. The original, with the 
consent of all the surviving members, obtained in 
writing, (a) under their hands, at a distance from 
each other, and without any inter-communica- 
tion, has been long since deposited in the pub- 
lic archives of the state of Massachusetts, by the 
late President of the Convention, accompanied by 
his certificate of its being the original, authentic, 
and only journal of the proceedings of that body. 

As the powers of that Convention were deriv^ 
from public legislative acts, and the report oi 
proceedings was also published in the time'^f 
them ; it is manifest that nothing was wanting to 
put the public in possession not only of all which 
the Convention could have authority to do, but of 
all which it actually proposed to do, and did in 
fact ; except this journal. 

This transcript is, therefore, with your permis- 
sion to be deposited on your shelf, solely to the 
end, that an opportunity may be afforded to any 
persons at the seat of government, whose curiosi- 

(a) These letters are in my possession, and at the ser- 
vice of yourselves, or any other g-entleman who wishes 
to peruse them. 



10 

ty may prompt them to devote an half hour to its 
pei'usal, of becomini^ acquainted with the entire 
proceedingb oithat Convention, inckidincj all the 
motions, propositions, and resolutions which were 
therein offered or debated. Thus, by compar- 
ing the original report with the journal, it will 
conchisively appear, beyond all probability of 
doubt in any ingenuous mind, not mily that 
no 'project for a separate cmiffderocu, or in any 
other mode hostile to the integrity of the Union 
or the success of the war-, vas entertained or 
moved in that hody^ hut that the original report 
did truly contain the substance of whatever was 
there meditated or transacted. 

Such, however, it is well known, is not the 
prevailing impression in many parts of this coun- 
try* concerning the jrenuine character of that rnn- 
vention. The very name is a by-word, with 
thousands who never read its proceedings, 
which, by a talismanic influence presents at once 
to the disturbed and irritated imagination the 
spectres of disunion, and civil war and treason. 
And many, who, upon a perusal of the printed do- 
cuments, could discern no sentiments deserving: 
reprobation, (though at variance with their own) 
have been unable to divest themselves of a jea- 
lousy that the report was either a mere gloss for 
some dangerous machinations reserved for fu- 
ture execution, or he abortive offspring of a ca- 
bal, convened for purposes which some of tlie 
confederates had too little of nerve or too much 
of vii'tue, to accomplish In a word, it is the fii m 
persuasion of many, that the design and tendency 
of that Convention, was a dismemberment of the 
Union, and that the event of peace alone prevent, 
ed the ripening of this combination to full and fn- 
tal maturity. This illusion is not confined to 
minds which are rendered, by preju lice or credu- 
lity, receptacles of gross and vulgar errors In 
many instances it has beguiled the understanding 
of men, gifted with powers of discrimination, and 



li 



disposed to the exercise of candor, but habitual- 
ly reposing too exclusively upon partial sources 
of information. It is no reproach to persons of 
this description (which is not common to our na- 
ture,) that they have not always invebtigated the 
evidence by which their judgment of the views 
and measures of political antagonists should be 
regulated. Amid wars and the dissensions which 
grow out of them in tree states, th« portraits 
which contending factions draw of each other are 
always received as likenesses, by those who are 
unacquainted with, and disposed to think ill of 
the originals. Mutual jealousies are entertained 
of intentions to proceed to violent extremes, and 
the most absurd fictions of malice and party ha- 
tred are swallowed with implicit faith by the 
« wisest," as well as the '' meanest of mankind." 
The wretched fabrication of the popish plot dif- 
fused throughout England prepossessions, against 
which no vigor of intellect was proof; and an 
implacable hatred of Catholics, which time and 
the executioner were necessary to appease. False 
plots and conspiracies, traitorous correspondence 
and seditious conclaves, constitute important 
parts in the machinery of all wars, whethei fo- 
reign or civil, and it is through the instrumenta- 
lity of these, that the most powerful appeals are 
made to the imaginations and passions ofmen. (6) 
■ It can hardly be supposed that the irritation pro- 
duced by the conflict of opinion respecting the late 



(6) It was matter of re^et and astonishment to me, to 
discover, (about two years ago for the first time,) that 
out of New EnglancU many federalists had been led to be- 
lieve in this ideal creation of a separation of the states. — 
But it is matter of amusement to observe, /7t New England, 
here and there^ federalists whose zeal in favor of a Conven- 
tion was the only inducement for their friends to accept 
the trust, now assenting witlt great self-complaisance to 
the discrimination sometimes attempted to be n^ade be- 
tween the. Conventioners and their constituents. "Thank 
God, I am not like this publican." Fer this there is no ex- 
cuse but a short memort/. 



12 

war, has so entirely subsided, that a patient hear- 
ing? might be expected of a vindication of the con- 
duct of the states or individuals who disapproved 
of that measure. And no disposition is felt, 
at this moment, to undertake cheir defence, or 
even to disturb the opinion of those who protest 
against the legitimacy of all conventions of states, 
or against the special acts of the Hartford Con- 
vention. But as the distinction of the great par- 
ties of the nation no longer appears in a conflict 
of opinions and interests, but has assumed the 
character of mere personal competition : and, 
as the passions which perpetuate the conten- 
tions for civil and religious rights, in govern- 
ments where these are at issue, ought not to 
rankle, long after their causes have ceased, in the 
bosoms of a people who differ only in regard to 
the means of promoting a national welfare, of 
which all are equally entitled to partake ; it is 
hoped that it may not be too early to attempt to 
rectify errors in fact , which originate in miscon- 
ception, and which, without affording support to 
any system of political opinions, are calculated 
to infuse a stain upon the character of one part 
of the nation, and to cherish acrimonious feelings 
and contentions, from which no advantage, but 
probably discredit and injury, may result to the 
whole. For this purpose solely, and without 
questioning the soundness or rectitude of any 
particular opinions, or the wisdom of any public 
measures ; without even fanning the embers of 
expiring fires, I wish to avail myself of the vehi- 
cle of your paper, to refer such of your readers 
as feel an interest in the enquiry, to such consi- 
derations and facts as may enable them to decide 
upon the true character of the Hartford Conven- 
tion. 



13 



LETTER n. 



If the odious projects which are supposed by 
many to have been agitated and attempted in the 
Hartford Convention concerned only the indivi- 
dual members, they probably would remain con- 
tent to repose in silence for their justification 
upon their established private characters, and 
upon their standing in the esteem and confidence 
of the people among whom ihey are best known. 
Although a spirit of personal enmity and local 
rivalry may dictate to some, who are heated in 
the race for preferment, the expediency of hold- 
ing up those members to public censure and pro- 
scription, it is still demonstrable that the reputa- 
tion of states and not of individuals is directly im- 
plicated in those transactions. The enquiry af- 
fects the public spirit and virtue not only of le- 
gislative assemblies, but the vital soundness of 
the heart of the New England population. The 
Delegates to the Convention were principally 
agents in behalf of states, acting under public in- 
structions which had been debated witii open 
doors whose limitations they could not transcend 
Among them were some, who exerted no influ- 
ence m promoting the measure, and others who 
accepted the trust with unfeigned reluctance, but 
from a coaviction of its being a duty to attempt 
to give to the project the most salutary direction. 
They possessed no authority, and were subject 
to no responsibility, but that which is common to 
legislative committees, empowered to report 
facts and opinions. The report which they made 
was equally a public document, accepted upon 
due deliberation by their several constituent legis- 
latures, and thus entitled to be considered as the 
act- of the people of those states. Thus an im- 
mense majority of the people of Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and respectable 
portions of those of New Hampshire and Ver- 
2 



X'i 



mont, are emphatically responsible for the organ- 
ization of that Convention, and the sanction be- 
stowed upon its result. There is no presumption 
that they were the dupes of leaders or taken by 
surprise. A suggestion, so reproachful to an in- 
telligent and independent people, vanishes before 
the recollection of the repeated opportunities of- 
fered them for a change of men in the State Go- 
vernments, and the general expression of opinion 
favorable tb such a Convention in all quarters of 
the country. In Massachusetts especially, the 
Legislature was stimulated to action by the spon- 
taneous movements of the people in their towns 
and counties. Petitions were heaped upon peti- 
tions, and the extra session, in which the Con- 
vention was proposed, was summoned to meet 
conformably to a manifestation of public solici- 
tude too evident to be mistaken, and too impera- 
tive to be evaded. 

It is then, be it repeated, the character of 
New England — of a great portion of the Ameri- 
can fraternity — a character eminent for all the 
moral and political attributes which give value 
to the social compact, and for the qualities and 
virtues on which every good government relies 
for support, that is to be rescued from a dispa- 
ragement which, in the view of the world, would 
attach to the reputation of the nation. For it is 
to dishonor the nation, that, whatever sounds to 
the discredit of any portion of it is collated, with 
mercenary zeal, by certain foreign purveyors of 
scandal, who are sent hither to collect either 
facts or falsehoods, wherewith to gratify the 
spleen or curiosity of their employers. Hence 
it is that idle tales, which, during the effervescence 
of party feeling, were poured forth against New 
England, in fugitive t)apers and pamphlets, and 
which the good sense of the nation would in time 
have assimilated to the legends of sorcery and 
witchcraft, are already, under the spell of certain 
travellers and reviewers, assuming the gravity of 



true history, and seem to demand a contempora- 
neous refutation. 

Let it now be supposed, in the way of argu- 
ment, as quite possible, that the legislatures of 
those slates, and the majority of the people, acted 
under erroneous views of ihcjr own interests, and 
of their duties to the nation. They may have 
been greatly mistaken in their construction of 
the constitutional charter, and have assumed un- 
tenable positions in their controversies with the 
national Executive. Bat the history of every 
confederacy of states, from the era of the Ach^an 
league to our times, abounds in disputes respect- 
ing the mutual obligations of its members. They 
originate unavoidably in the imperfection of lan- 
guage, in the diversity of aspects under which 
objects are surveyed by different minds ; some- 
times in feelings and motives of genuine patriot- 
ism, and not unfrequently in ardent passions and 
oblique views of local interest. 

In such dissentions it too often happens that 
the magnitude and danger of the emergency, 
which ought to suspend the spirit of controversy, 
augment its fierceness. One party must always 
be in the wrong ; but it by no means follows 
that a misapprehension of right, because it hap- 
pens to be chargeable upon the weaker or minor 
party, though defended with peiseverance, and 
even excessive fervency, implies a disposition to 
secede from the confederacy. Nor does it consist 
• with good policyorthe interest of the confederates, 
because their voices are most numerous and loud, 
to stamp any symptom of supposed contumacy 
with this aggravated stigma, unless proved to de- 
serve it by overt acts. Each state, in its turn, may 
incur this reproach. There is a striking re- 
semblance in the tendency of the popular senti- 
ment, (as the short annals of our government will 
shew,) in great as well as in small states, and in 
the districts of the South and the West, as well as 
of the East, under similar circumstances, to run 



in the same channels of opposilion and complaint 
— to stickle for state rit^hts, and to remonstrate a- 
gainst alleged encroachments of the national au- 
thority, in tones susceptible of a menacing, at 
least of an equivocal, construction. While, then, 
severe invectives, and invidious comparisons of 
the merits, patriotism, enthusiasm, courage, and 
disinterestedness of the different states and sec- 
tions of our nation, can produce at home no fruit 
but implacable jealousies, hatred, and intestine di- 
visions, and consequently from abroad contempt 
and clanger, the true friends of their country will 
be willing, in the absence of the causes which 
have alienated them from each other, to review 
the sources of their antipathies and prejudices, 
and magnanimously to renounce all such as are 
unsupported by correctand conclusive evidence. 



, LETTER III. 

The imposture of the Popish plot, before al- 
luded to, which will remain an eternal monu- 
ment of the credulity to which a great and intel- 
ligent nation is liable, was countenanced by evi- 
dence more plausible than any which has autho- 
rised a belief in the chimera of a northern con- 
federacy. A real and most atrocious conspiracy, 
the gunpowder treason, had preceded. It was 
raised upon the usual scaffolding of accusations, 
indictments, oaths, and judicial sentences. The 
oaths, indeed, were those of perjured monsters, 
and the charges an outrage upon common rea- 
son, and a violation of the congruities of time and 
place. But oaths and judgments, and the axe 
andthegibbet,arecogentarguments, by which not 
only the love of the marvellous is confirmed, but 
the faith of nations, religious and political, and 
sometimes their governments, are influenced and 



17 

changed. In tliis affair of the Convention, how- 
ever, there has been from first to last, absolutely 
nothing corresponding with our common notions 
of the lighte&t historical evidence Among the 
proceedings of the state of Massachusetts, which 
was regarded as the pioneer of opposition, no 
speech or message of the Executive, no report 
of a committee, no vote, resolution, or act, has 
ever been, or can be, presented, which^ taken 
tosnether with its contexts can be tortured into 
the expression of a sentiment favorable to a dis- 
memberment of ihe Union On the contrary, 
in many of those public messages and answers, 
this object is explicitly disavowed, and the event 
regarded as a most deplorable possibility, which 
all were solemnly conjured to avert. It is believ- 
ed also, that no speecli or writing has ever been 
imputed to any Senator or liepresentative, either 
in or out of his place, even glancing at the expe- 
diency of a separation of the states ; and that no 
expression of such an opinion from any meeting of 
citizens, tormal or otherwise, entitled to be viewed 
as indicative q/" a pufrfic seniiinewf, can any where 
be found. It is true that some industrious com- 
pilers, (of a class who deny the pretensions of 
Clarendon, Temple, and Hume,* to be considered 
as writers of authentic history.) have embodied in 
their compilations, votes of corporations, ex- 
tracts from sermons, and from the essays of anon- 
ymous writers in newspapers, in which the idea 
of a separation of the states is held forth as likely 
to become a choice of evils. But this whole far- 
rago of scraps, so far as I can find, does not con- 
tern more than half a dozen small towns, three 
or four clergymen, and the anonymous dealers 
in occasional squibs and paragraphs. Yet on 
this foundation is built, by one of these compil- 

* See Vindicix Hibernicse, and the Olive Branch, pas- 
sim. 

2* 



IS 

ers, *^ a deep, dangerous, and treasonable conspi- 
racy among leading men to dissolve the Union.** 
It can require no effort of reason to satisfy eve- 
ry calm enquirer that the government of a state 
is not responsible for the effusions of the pulpit, or 
for the resolutions of towns or corporations. It 
has no power to bring a prelate to the block or to 
the stake, or to order his sermon to be burned 
by the hangman ; neither can it muzzle the town 
meeting orators, or manacle the press. Intem- 
perate and unguarded expressions, in times of 
excitement, escape from the lips and pens of the 
prudent, which neither the government, or the 
party whose policy they espouse, would sanction; 
and there will always be men, among friends and 
foes, who are constitutionally imprudent. In the 
harangues and essays of individuals, and in the 
proceedings of >.nore than one assemblage ot citi- 
zens, that adhered to the administration, during 
the same period, can be found wiihout much re- 
search, sentiments, by which neither the Execu- 
tive or Congress would agree to be concluded. 
Honest and mistaken zeal, and fervid imagina- 
tions, frequently impel iridividuals of the most up- 
right characters and eminent talents into a tone o£ 
conversation and writing elevated much above 
the views of the parly with whom they act. And 
if, on the occurrence of these indiscretions, thf-y 
were exposed to the perpetual rebuke and disa- 
vowf\l ot their friends, it is manifest that such a 
' party would be decomposed and fall to pieces by 
the fermentation of its own materials. Admitting, 
however, that tliese suggestions are sufficient to 
exculpate the state legislatures from the impru- 
dence of individuals n(kt under their control ; ma- 
ny will be ready to array a formidable catalogue 
of the Executive and Legislative proceedings of 
the state of Massachusetts, teeming with censures 
upon the policy of the administration which pre- 
ceded the late war, and with bitter reprobation of 
the war itself. These, it has been insisted, en- 



19 

couraged a spirit of disunion, (which they might 
not express,) the tendency of which was towards 
a dissolution of the confederacy. 

But the question here intended to be consider- 
ed, is not the merit or correctness of these legis- 
lative proceedings, nor the effect upon the public 
mind which they might indirectly produce. The 
object is simply to repel the suggestion that the 
Hartford Convention was organized for purposes 
hostile to the Union, and adverse to ihe effectual 
defence of the country— these being the peculiar 
features which have been considered as distin- 
guishing it from other measures. When this 
pomt is settled, the opposition of Massachusetts 
and of the New England people to the measures 
of government, and of the war, runs in a parallel 
with the opposition elsewhere ;t vvith that of the 

f The Centinel of August 22, 1813, mentions a meet- 
ing in the city of New York,, on the preceding Wednes- 
day, at which were present John Jay, Jiufus Kinj;, G, 
Morris, Richard Harrison, Egbert Benson, Matthew 
Clarkson, Kiciiard Vanck, and otlier distinguished n.di- 
viduals. At tliis meeting, resolutions were framed, ex- 
pressive of the strongest f'isapprob lUon of the war, pre- 
dicting its unhappy issue, impeaching the motives of ad- 
ministration, pre .icting an alliance with and subjugation 
by France; declaring that the question "of peace or 
war," involves all that is dear and valuable on this side 
the grave ; and, after calhng on the people of the state to 
unite and declare their sentiments, it was resolved, " that 
Representative:s be chosen in the several counties, dis- 
creet men, the friends of peace. These Representa- 
tives can corr'-spond or confer with each otiier, and co- 
operate ivith the friemls of peace in our sister states, in de- 
vising and j)ursuing suclt constitutional measures as may 
secure our independence and preserve our Union, both 
of which are endangered by the present war." Mem- 
bers were accordingly chosen. 

A)<-ain, September 17, 1812, a Convention of Dele- 
gates froiix ;;4 counties in New Yoi-k, met at Albany, and 
pfvssed an address to the President on the conduct of the 
Naiioi-.ul lluiers, and very signijicant resolutions. 

Al Staunton, in Virginia, a Ccmvention of Delegates 
fro i eif^hteen of the most populous, wealthy, and res- 
pectable counties in the state, assembled, (the precise 



29 

minority of the Representatives in Congress, 
and the minoriiies of the people out of doors ; 
with the opposition in the state of New York, (led 
by men of great distinction, whose sins are for- 
given ;) with the opposition in the legislature of 
Maryland, in some counties of Virginia, and other 
places ; perhaps sometimes a little in advance, 
but always distinguished more by its locality thsin. 
by any other peculiar feature. Whoever will 
compare the language and the course of opposi- 
tion in and out of New England, will be led to con- 
clude that the former has been considered as more 
obnoxious, merely because it ^'as more extensive. 
There is no difference in their nature, and none of 
moment in their degree. But in popular gov- 
ernments it cannot be a maxim that the offence ol 



date not now recollected,) and agreed upon a list ot 
Electors of President and Vice President, friends to 
peace, &c. In their address, they call upon the people 
to oo-operate in removing- from office an administration 
which has nearly accomplislied the annihilation of com- 
merce. They denominate the war ** unnecessary and 
impolitic," ana say, "as friends to union, we invoke you 
to arrest the progi-ess of a system tending to its speedy 
and awful dissolution." 

In the Legis'ature of Maryland, the same temper pre- 
V ailed, and he same ideas, in substance, were expressed. 

At the moment in the late war, when intelligence 
reached Norfolk, in Virgmia, of the destruction of Ine 
Capitol by the enemy, a General of Militia, (a Federalist,) 
then in the service of the United States, declared, in the 
bitterness of his ang-uish, that " with one arm he would 
expel the foe, and with the other pull down the existing 
administration." This gentleman, on the day thai his 
havuig used these expressions, was admitted and excus- 
ed by his friend in the House of Delegates of Virginia, 
was elected to the command of 10,000 regular troops, 
which that state kad determined to raise for her own de- 
fence; and this friend was chosen, by the same body, a 
Brigadier General of that army, I have this anecdote 
from one of the parties. 

Instances to this effect might be multiplied without 
end. The language of the passions is natural and uni- 
versal, liiope that a merciless intolerance will not prove 
to be local and perpetual. 



01 

opposition increases in heinoiisness in the ratio 
of the numbers concerned. The strong expres- 
sions of the disapprobation of the measures of a 
former administration, pervadinij the celebrated 
resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky, (which 
have not since been surpassed in emphasis, and 
tone, and intelligible piquancy ,) were not allowed 
to be the more objectionable, in consequence of 
expressing the general voice of their people. We 
are openly assured that the people of Missouri 
'*vill construe the constitution for themselves, if 
the exposition of Congress should be unfavorable 
to their views. And in Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Virginia, the obligatory force of the la\\s of the 
Union, as expounded by the highest judicial au- 
thority, is doubted or denied by pel sons in emin- 
ent stations, who probably consider themselves 
(8c have always been reputed to be) good citizens. 
Opposition in peace and in war, is the growth, 
& sometimes theblemish,of popular governments. 
When Chatham, Barre, Burke arid Fox, and 
other illustrious men, put forth the energies of 
their mighty minds, and defended the rights of 
the American colonies, they were chars-ced with 
promoting a separation of the empire. When the 
oppressions and the tears of Ireland are portray- 
ed by those who have sympathy in her sorrows, 
and indignation for her wrongs, and impatience 
for her relief, how many have been ready to as- 
sail the Grattans and the Currans of the two last 
centuries with the cry ot " treason," and stigma- 
tise the advocates for her interests as the apostles 
of sedition and of a dismemberment of tiie em- 
pire ! So it fared with the opposition in the Bri- 
tish Parliament in every stage of the late contest 
with France, and such is the character and lot of 
all opposition. It pauses not to deal out remon- 
strance by grains and scruples, and consults no 
critical dictionaries for words of equivocal im- 
port. It must be dumb, or speak audibly; ar.d, 
though it addresses its fellow-citizens, it must be 



22 

heard by the world. While it stnip^p;les, it is fac- 
tion; when it triumphs, it is the people. Each 
opposition, in its turn, is branded with the impu- 
tation of aniiing to undermine the constitution in 
time of peace, 8c, in the season of war, of inspirit- 
ing the enemy. Time rarely l^ils to shew the 
injustice of these accusations, which in their na- 
ture, are hardly applicable to ii;rcat communities 
consistint^ of free citizens. Such a people may 
do wron,£^ by mistake. They are open to errone- 
ous impressJons, unreasonable jealousies, to de- 
pression and enthusiasm, and to ardent passions; 
they may be blind to their interests, and for a 
time diverted from a sense of their duties. Whe- 
ther the Eastern States, or any of them, may 
fairly be ranked as having been in this predica- 
ment, is not the issue now under examination. 
It is only contended, that the distance is immea- 
surable between a general discontent with the 
course of affairS; manifested by an ardent opposi- 
tion, reasonable or otherwise, and a disposition 
to dissolve the bonds which hold together the po- 
litical fabric. 



LETTER IV. 

The imaginary mystery which overshadows 
the history of the Hartford Convention is at once 
develo?jed by confining the attention to the only 
fair and correct evidence which is admissible in 
the enquiry. This, it has been already intimated, 
is to be found only in the record of the proceed- 
ings of the legislative bodies which are to be con- 
sidered as the framers of the project or in the 
acts of the Convention itself. To the first we 
m\ist look for the instructions and authority of 
the persons commissioned to act: to the last, for 
the result of their deliberations. There is no 



23 

other just criterion to which the measures of any 
representative body can be referred. In our daily 
researches we are habituated to no other. The 
measures of national assemblies, conventions, 
parliaments, and congresses, receive their cha- 
racteristic stamp, in public opinion, from their 
acts. To presume that a legislative body, con- 
sisting of at least five hundred persons, as did 
that of Massachusetts, sitting constantly with 
open doors, could be capable of digesting a for- 
vnula of instructions for its public agents, clothed 
in the solemnity of its usual sanctions, and pub- 
lished to the world, with an understanding that 
it should be regarded as merely colorable^ and 
that the delegates to be appointed by them should 
exercise some occult functions, which had never 
been the subject even of debate, and which it was 
not expedient to define, is an idle suspicion, that 
must vanish before the first iniimation, not mere- 
ly of its variance from all usar^e and analogy, but 
of its practical impossibility. But the extrava- 
gance of the conjecture ends not here. It would 
not be sufficient for the legislature that should 
have first conceived this unrevealed scheme of 
disunion, to communicate its secret purpose, by 
afflation, to its immediate delegates. It was es- 
sential to the plan, that other states should be in- 
duced to CO operate in its execution. Yet was 
there no conference or correspondence between 
these legislatures They were not even in ses^ 
sion at the same time. The only invitation given 
to them was in co iformity to the two following 
resolves, which form the basis of the powers of 
the Convention, and which, with the resolves ac- 
companying them, and the report of the commit- 
tee whereon they were founded, and the circular 
letter written in pursuance of them, are all mat- 
ters of public record, which were published in 
iheir day : 

" liesolred. That twelve persons be appointed as de- 
legates from this commonwealth, to meet and confer with 



«4 

delegates from the other states of New England, or any 
of them, upon the subjects of their public grievances and 
concerns, and upon the best means of preserving our re- 
sources, and of defence against the enemy, and to devise 
and suggest fuv adoption, by those respective states, such 
measures as they may deem expedient; and also to take 
measures, if they shall think proper, for procuring a 
convention of delegates from all the United States, in or- 
der to revise the constitution thereof, and more effectu- 
ally to secure the support and attachment of all the peo- 
ple, by placing a// upon the basis of fair representation." 
« Resolved, That a circular letter from tliis legislature, 
signed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, be addressed to the executive 
government of each of said states, to be communicated to 
their legislatures, explaining the objects of the proposed 
conference, and inviting them to concur in sending de- 
legates thereto." 

Upon such an invitation, the legislatures to 
whom it was addressed are to comprehend the 
hidden purpose of Massachusetts, and to com- 
municate it, in their turn, by inspiration, to their 
delegates; who are ultimately to meet qualified 
and prepared to make or receive proposals, and 
settle preliminaries for a dissolution of the Union. 
What can be more egregiously absurd? It re- 
sults, then, from internal and uncontrolable evi- 
dence, in the nature of things, that these legisla- 
tures could not have intended more than they ex- 
pressed ; and there is then left no refuge for the 
jealous mind, but in the belief that these dele- 
gates, or some of them, were inclined, of their 
own mere motion, and in contempt of their in- 
btructions, to enterprise a dismemberment of the 
Union, at the risk of the disavowal of their con- 
stituents, and their owi^ consequent disgrace and 
cojifusion; and that to this end propositions were 
made by a niinority, of which the majority would 
permit no trace to appear on their private jour- 
nals, though requisite for their own vindication. 
To some such unfounded and extravagant con- 
jecture a resort is indispensable, by those who 
imagine that " more was intended than met the 



25 

ef e," in the organization or proceedings of the 
Convention. 

There is then no shadow of reason for any sus- 
picion that the public report and private minutes 
of that assembly do not contain a full recital of its 
proceedings; and the idea that any part of them 
is suppressed, or in any particular varied from 
their original tenor, would imply either the con- 
currence of all the members, dispersed at great 
distances from each other, in a base fraud, or the 
commission of a fraud upon them, by the certify- 
ing officer. To the weakness as well as the in- 
dignity that would be couched in such an insinu- 
ation, no person acquainted with those individu- 
als, will believe it can be necessary to anticipate 
a reply. These proceedings must, therefore, be 
brought to the test, by which those of other re- 
presentative bodies are ascertained. It is by the 
record only that the trial can be had^ and it is by 
departing from it into the extraneous regions of 
suspicion, and indulging a propensity natural in 
distempered times, to believe in plots and conspi- 
racies, that the Hartford Convention has been dis- 
tinguished as the most dangerous measure of op- 
position during the late war. Yet this is so re^ 
mote from truth, that its history proves to demon- 
stration, that it promised, beyond all other mea- 
sures, had the war continued, to have been in- 
strumental in aiding the defence of the country, 
and that its issue had an actual tendency to calm, 
and not to foment, the violence and danger of op- 
position in the Eastern states. 



LETTER V. 

The observations made in the preceding num^ 
bers seem, without any fallacy, to establish the 
correctness of the principle, that the powers giv- 

3 



26 

c'u lolhc Hartford Convciuion, ami ilicir \m\;- 
ceedini^s pursuant ihcroio, should consiiuitc ihc 
only tair rules tor csiiniaiing ihc views, moiives 
and loyally lo the consiituiion of ihe slates and 
individuals who were parlies to its proceeding's — 
and that they should be judged by the maxim, 
" by their fruits shall ye know them." h is a 
most extraordinary truth, that, amid the censures 
>vhich have been so copiously sho\vered upon 
that body of men, there has been rarely an at- 
tempt to impeach, and never to criminate iheir 
printed proceeding's. The cry has been — crucify, 
crucify, but none could reply to the question, 
what evd have they done ? The political opmio;is 
asserted in their reportmay be rig;ht or ernmeous; 
but they are not alleged to be uncottstiiutional. 
The amendments recommended to tne constitu- 
tion might be salutary or supcrtluous, still they 
were mere recommsndaiions to be adopted or 
rejected by other states, at their pleasure. In 
all this, there may have been a defect of wis- 
dom, but noihini; that partakes of crime. So, 
because all that was kiunvn was innoctnt, the pro- 
phets, who founil themselvc 5 at t.\ult, would have 
it, that something was behinJ the curtain. The 
secrets of the prison house wer*; not revealed — 
the masked battery had reserved its tire. In fact, 
tbey sat with closed doors. So, indeed, did 
sometimes the conventions of the early christians, 
yel Pliny could only report of them to rrajan,that 
they woi^hip'd Ciod daily, and encouraged each 
other in the practice of the duties of the man 
and the citizen. I'he Hartford Convention did 
nothing worse. To prove this truth to the con- 
viction of every (mt mind, it would be desirable, 
(ntiw that The jirivate journul is made accessible) 
to present to the public, in one connected view, 
the procedure of the legislative bodies and 
county mectinv;;^ which were there represented, 
and the report of the Convention in extenso. But 
as more aie swilt t« condemn thaniire willing to 



27 

read, and those of the latter description can easi- 
ly have recourse to these documents, nothing 
more will be attempted here, than the introduc- 
tion of suth concise references to ihem as will 
substantiate the following to have been the two 
principal objects of the convention : 

First. To provide for the defence of the East- 
ern States in a nr;oie efficient and economical 
mode, than could be djne, under existing cir- 
cumstances, by the General Government. 

Second. To accelerate the adoption of certain 
amendments to the constitution, which were then 
considered to beof uri^ent and vital importance. 
That this was the entire aim of that conven- 
tion, will be more app^irent, upon advening for a 
moment to the state of affairs in New England, 
and especially in Massachusetts, at that epoch. 

In the summer of 1 8 1 4, the war,which had not 
before been brought home to tliat state, began 
upon its borders. Castine, an exposed settle- 
ment on the maritime frontier, (which could nei- 
ther be defended or retaken without a naval 
force) had been captured ; and the intelligence 
received of a further meditated invasion, called for 
immediatemeasuresofdefence.Theextensivesea- 
board was furnished with a few nominal fortresses, 
and (the troops of the United States having been 
withdrawn to Canada,) they were unprovided 
with men and munitions of war. Although the 
Governorof that State, two years before this time, 
had declined transferring the command of the 
militia to the military prefect of the United 
States, it is equally true, that he was now dis- 
posed to wave the constitutional objections which 
had influenced his conduct, and had repeatedly 
ordered detachments^ in precise conformity with 
the requisitions of the General Government. Yet, 
such were the inconveniences arising from this 
compliance, owing to the jealousies and discon- 
tents among the officers and troops, and to the 
collisipn of different systems of tactics, that, for 



28 

this cause only, the Governor desisted from re-* 
peating orders for detaching the militia to serve 
under any officers but their own. 

The emergency, however, was imperative — • 
Detachments were ordered, and the Treasury of 
the state threatened with empty vauhs. All the 
sources of revenue were pre-occupied by the na- 
tional taxes. Commerce was at end, and a gene- 
ral sentiment prevailing, that the sea coast would 
be exposed to desolation and ravnge, without 
reliance upon any but their own protection. — 
Combined with these painful circumstances was 
a state of deep dissatisfaction with the policy 
which led to the war, and a persuasion that peace 
was at a fearful distance. These disasters were 
attributed (whether justly or not) to the unequal 
operation of certain provisions in the constitution 
of th<? United States, and fears were entertained 
by many lest the public feeling, roused to a high 
pitch of exasperation, would at length burst forth 
into some lamentable excess. Such an event 
was sincerely deprecated by persons of the 
greatest influence and consideration in every 
part of the state. Though by no means reconcil- 
ed to the measures of government, or a belief m 
the original necessity of the war, they had gene- 
rally despaired of stopping its progress by their 
opposition. Moreover, the persuasion became 
general, that, in the overthrow of the Despot of 
France, would be realized the extinction not only 
of the source of ultimate danger to the liberties 
of the nation, but of the principal causes of our 
internal feuds, and that a more auspicious order 
of things, according to their views, could hardly 
fail to result, under any administration, when 
peace should take place. They were also alarm- 
ed by a knowledge of the augmented means of an- 
noyance now left at the disposal of the enemy, 
and not less convinced than their political adver- 
saries, that a protection from the heaviest cala- 
mities of war could be found only in preparation 



29 

for the most vigorous defence. Under these 
circu stances, the Executive, having given or- 
ders to the whole militia to be in readiness, and 
to several corps of the elite to take the field, 
thought proper to convene the legislature, and 
communicate to them his views of the approach- 
ing danger and embarrassments. The militia of 
that and of the contiguous maritime states, being 
generally well appointed, trained to the same ha- 
bits of discipline, and attached to their officers, 
to whose command they were familiarized, the 
opinion became prevalent that those states might 
concert a plan for their local defence, which 
would not only add greatly to their security, but ac- 
tually conduce to ihe safety and economy ot the 
nation, if any expedient could be devised where- 
by they might be allowed to defray the expense, 
by retaining or receiving back a portion of the 
revenue raised among themselves. And here it 
may not be impertinent to remark, that, although 
this scheme was considered by some as not on- 
ly inadmissible but derogatory to the honor of 
the national government, yet, within a few weeks 
of this period, an act of Congress was passed, 
authorising the employment of state troops under 
their own officers, the provisions of which ap- 
proximated so nearly to this same scheme^ and to 
all that Massachusetts and Connecticut had re- 
quested, that, had it been enacted in an earlier 
stage of the war, there would, in all probability, 
never have existed either a misunderstanding 
with the National Government concerning the 
militia., nor a Hartford Convention. Besides this 
very momentous object of defence, it was also a 
generally received opinion that the interests of 
the Eastern section ot the Union required im- 
portant amendments to be made to the constitu- 
tion, which could not be effected in the modd pre- 
scribed in that instrument ; and, that, if the war 
should continue, it was not improbable that a dis- 
position might be excited in a great majority ©f 
3* 



30 

the states and people, favorable to audi amend- 
ments. But it was also thought that, if, upon 
due deliberation, it should be manifest that the 
public grievances admitted of no remedy with- 
out convulsive efforts, dangerous to the public 
peace, and repugnant to the constitution ; in that 
case, an exposition of the rights and duties and 
interests of the people, showing such a remedy- 
to be worse than the disease, would come from 
such a Convention with a weight of influence and 
favor that would reconcile the people to sustain 
'with patience the inevitable evils of their condi- 
tion, rather than to resort to expedients, of which 
no human foresight could reach the chances and 
events. 



LETTER VI. 

Immediately upon the meeting of the Legis- 
lature of Massachusetts, a joint committee was 
appointed upon the Governor's message, which 
in due time made a report, the preamble of which 
commenced with a recital of what they conceived 
to be the posture of affairs, and ended with the 
following conclusion, which, as it comprehended 
the whole scope of the proposed Convention, is 

here given verbatim : 

" It is therefore with great concern that your commit- 
tee are obliged to declare their conviction, that the con- 
stitution of the United States, under the administration 
of the persons in power, has failed to secure to this com- 
Hionwealth, and, as they believe, to the eastern sectioa 
of this Union, those equal rights and benefits which were 
the great objects of its formation, and which they cannot 
relinquish without ruin to themselves and posterity. 
These grievances justify and require vigorous, persever- 
ing, and peaceable exertions, to unite those who realize 
the sufferings and foresee the dangers of the country, in. 
some system of measures to obtain relief, for which the^ 
|>rdiiiary mode of procuring amendment-s to the coasitu- 



31 

fcion affords no reasonable expectation, in season to pre- 
vent the completion of its ruin. The people, however, 
possess the means of certain redress, and when their safe- 
ty, which is the supreme law, is in question, these means 
should be promptly appUed. The framers of the consti- 
tution made provision to amend defects, which were 
known to be incident to every human institution, and 
the provision itself was not less hkely to be found defect- 
ive, upon experiment, than any other parts of the instru- 
ment. When this deficiency becomes apparent, no rea- 
son can preclude the right of the tuhole people, who were 
parties to it, to adopt another; and it is not a presumptu- 
ous expectation, that a spirit of equity aud justice, en- 
lightened by experience, would enable them to recon- 
cile conflicting interests, and obviate the principal causes 
of those dissentions whicli unfit government for a state of 
peace and of war — and so to amend the constitution as to 
give vigor and duration to the union of the states. But, 
as a proposition for such a convention, from a single state, 
would probably be unsuccessful, and our danger admits 
not of delay, it is recommended by the committee that, 
in the first instance, a conference should be invited be- 
tween those states, the affinity of whose interests is clos- 
est, and whose habits of intercourse, from their local 
situation and other causes, are most frequent, to the end 
that, liy a comparison of their sentiments and views, some 
mode of defence suited to tlie circumstances and exigen- 
cies of those states, and measures for accelerating the 
return of public prosperity, may be devised; and also to 
enable the delegates from those states, should they deem 
it expedient, to lay the toundation for a radical reform 
in the national compact, by inviting to a future Conven- 
tion a deputation /j'orn all the states in the Union. They 
therefore report the following resolves, which are sub- 
mitted—" 

Here follow the resolves recited in a former 
letter, and others which are entirely confined to 
the raising and organizing of troops for the de- 
fence of the commonwealth. It must seem in- 
credible to many who have permitted themselves 
to be transported by indignation and prejudice 
against that Convention, upon the faith of the 
misrepresentation made of its views, that a report 
conceived in such terms (however variant tram 
their own opinions of propriety) should be the wAote 
platform of its authorities, operations and end. 
Yet such was the fact. The daily proceedings of 



3£ 

the Members of the Convention, from the time 
of their meeting to their dissolution, may now be 
seen by any person, and may be published by 
whoever believes that any public use or gratifi- 
cation would result from so dry a detail, and who 
will reprint, in connexion with it, the entire re- 
port, But, believing that this has now ceased to 
be a subject of general interest, and that it may 
not again be reprinted, I proceed with such of 
the proposed extracts as are applicable to this 
enquiry. After some general complaints, and 
an expression of a hope of " a refoi-mation of 
public opinion," and that our brethren in the 
South " will have seen that the great and essen- 
tial interests of the people are common to the 
South and to the East," and a caution against 
*» checking these favorable tendencies,'* we find 
these sentiments : 

"Finally, if the Union be destined to dissolution by 
reason of the multipUed abuses of bad administrations, it 
should, if possible, be the work of peaceable times and 
deliberate consent. Some new form of confederacy 
should be substituted among* those states which shall in- 
tend to maintain a federal relation to each other. E- 
vents may prove that the causes of our calamities are 
deep and permanent. They may be found to proceed 
not merely from the bhndness of prejudice, pride of o- 
pinion, violence of party spirit, or the confusion of the 
times, but they may be traced to implacable combinations 
of individuals or of states, to monopolize power and office, 
and to trample, without remorse, upon the rights and in- 
terests of the commercial sections of tiie Union. Whene- 
ver it shall appear that these causes are radical and per- 
manent, a separation, by equitable arrangement, will be 
preferable to an alhance, by constraint, among nominal 
friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred and 
jealousies, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt 
and aggression from abroad. But a severance of the Union 
by one or more states, against the tvill of the rest, and especi- 
ally in time of war, can be justified only by absolute necessi- 
ty. These are among' the priricipal objections against pre- 
cipitate measures, tending to disunite the states ,• and, -when 
examiried in connexion with the farewell address of the Fa- 
ther of his Country^ they must, it is believed, be deemed ctn- 
clusive" 



33 

One clause more shall be here quoted : 
"With this view [to defence] they sug-gest an arrange- 
ment, which may at once he consistent with the honor 
and interest of the national government and the security 
! of these states. This it will not be difficult to conclude, 
! if thvt government should be so disposed. By the terms 
of it these states might be allowed to assume their own de- 
fence by the militia or other troops. A reasonable por- 
; tion, also, of the taxes raised in each state, might be paid 
i into its Treasury, and credited to the United States, but 
to be appropriated to the defence of such state, to be ac- 
counted f .r with the United States. No doubt is en- 
'■ tcrtained that, by such an arrangement, this portion of 
the country could be defended with greater effect, and in 
a mode more consistent with economy and public conve- 
I nience, than any which has been practised. Should an 
application for these purposes, made to Congress by the 
state legislatures, be attended with success, and should 
peace, upon just terms, appear to be unattainable, the 
people would stand together for the common defence, 
until a change of administration, or of disposition in the 
enemy, should facilitate the occurrence of that auspicious 
event." 

Is it not natural here again to pause, and ex- 
press astonishment, that the framers of an address 
containing these propositions should be obnox- 
ious to the charge of a plot to separate the states, 
or a willingness to embolden the pretensions and 
advances of the enemy ? These sentiments 
(which are by no means the only ones of the 
same bearing) are, indeed, coupled with many 
others of glowing expostulation and indignant 
comphiint ; but among them not a sentence or a 
line adapted to impair the full force of the admo- 
nitions to union and defence. In short, it may 
justly be doubted, whether there be any docu- 
ment extant, except the Farewell Address of 
Washington, in which the vital importance of the 
Federal Union is more seriously inculcated than 
in the report of that Convention, whatever may 
be its demerits in other respects. In one view, 
perhaps, it was destined to make even a deeper 
impression on those to whou) it was addressed ; 
for, though the valediction of the Father of his 
country was conceived in terms of unrivalled pa- 
thos, and his warning voice was as that of an an- 



S4 

gel, while the Deputies at Hartford spoke only 
the language of plain men ; yet he could only 
prophecy of the future trials which awaited the 
disciples of the Federal faidi. But the Conven- 
tion, by alluding to the address of Washington, 
enforced the virtue and duty of stedfaslness to its 
principles upon those who, smarting, as they ima- 
gined themselves, under vexations and sufferings 
arising from the operation of the Federal consti- 
tution, were more exposed to the suggestions of 
scepticism and the impulse of feeling. The pub- 
lication of the report of the Convention produced 
the immediate effect of calming the public mind 
throughout New England. Its friends were sa- 
tisfied with the correctness of the course prescrib- 
ed, and its adversaries generally reconciled to 
its niodoration. A few only were filled with irri- 
tation and bitter disappointment, who, having 
feasted on the expectation that their pohtical op- 
ponents would resort lo some desperate extreme, 
and persuaded others to fear what themselves 
hoped,have never been able to forgive the Conven- 
tion for bafiling their calculations. It is in the re- 
collection of all that this renort hav ing been accept- 
ed, agents were deputed from some of ihe st.aes, 
with instructions to atteiDptio make t!»e arrange- 
ment with the general government, in regaj-d to 
the employment oilocal troops, and the means of 
supporting them, that was therein proj osed. But 
their principal object was ariticipated by Con- 
gress, in the enactment of the law* heretofore 

*The first section of this act provides, "That the Pres- 
ident of the United States be, and he heret-y is, authori- 
sed and required to receive into the service of the Uni- 
ted States any corps of troops which have been, or may 
be, raised, organized, and oificered, under the authority of 
any of the states, whose term of service shall not be less 
than twelve months ; which corps, when received into the 
service of the United States, shall be subject to the rules 
and ai'ticles of war, cmd employed in the state raising the 
samey or in an adjoining' state, and not elsexvhere, except 
•with the assent of the Exeaitive of the state so raising the 
Wne. 



35 



quoted. This, and another act which had passed 
the Senate, providing for the payment of the mili- 
tia already employed by the several states, (and 
which, it was presumed, would have passed the 
House, had peace been delayed,) embraced the 
most material objects of that mission, and would 
have tended greatly to appease the discontent of 
New England, in the further progress of the war. 



LETTER VII. 

The remarks suggested, and the documents 
quoted, in the foregoing letters, evidently place it 
in the power of all who see fit to read them, to be- 
come equally conversant with the whole history 
of the Hartford Convention, and its proceedings, 
as are the surviving members of that body. It is 
not less certain, from the same evidence, that 
nothing more was done, or recommended to be 
done, in opposition to the measures of govern- 
ment, than had appeared in other states and dis- 
tricts, and public meetings of people who were re- 
luctant in the prosecution of the war. No topic 
of complaint or remonstrance was there ur^ed, 
which had not been before insistedon, with equal, 
and sometimes more impassioned vehemence, 
botl within and without the walls of Congress. 
They neither counselled or proceeded to any o- 
vert act of resistance to the laws, or threatened the 
slightest violation of the forms of the constitution. 
The extent of their offending consisted merely in 
the mode adopted to give weight and efficacy to o- 
pinions and theories, which, though not before 
condensed under a sanction so formal, were fami- 
liar to the dissentients from the policy of the ad- 
ministration, in every sec ion of the country. The 
aggravations of their political errors, if such they 
were, are reducible to the simple act of conven- 



3G 

ingy as deputies from states, and speaking with 
one accord, but do not consist in the intrinsic un- 
lawfulness, or even peculiarity, of their language 
or actions. Concerning the expediency of con- 
ventions of states for these or other purposes, it 
is difficult for any one member to speak with pro- 
priety, as none is authorized to express the pri- 
vate sentiments of the rest. But it may safely be 
affirmed of them, (with one exception,) that no 
equal number of men surpassed them in preten- 
sions to moral worth, sound sense, political expe- 
rience, and the enjoyment of public confidence in 
their respective states ; none whose fidelity to the 
Union was guarantied by stronger pledges, and 
to whose welfare and happiness any revolutionary 
struggle would have been more disastrous ; and, 
it may be added, none, of whom so large a por- 
tion had bid adieu to the allurements and cares of 
offices and honors, and retired spontaneously to 
the shade of private life. It is presumable that 
such men, acting from the conviction of their un- 
derstandings at the time, would not now incline to 
perform penance, or propitiate favor at the ex- 
pence of their independence, and sincerity, and 
dignity of character ; yet it is certain that many, 
if not all of them, would candidly admit that, with 
a knowledge since acquired of the extreme jeal- 
ousy and misrepresentation to which a conven- 
tion of states must ever be obnoxious, they would 
find no inducement, even with the purest motives, 
to give countenance to a :ncasure which, by of- 
fending public opinion, would be divested of the 
power of doing good. As the amendments to the 
old confederation? (in other words, the federal 
constitution itself,J grew out of conventions of de- 
legates from a few states, who were convinced of 
its defects, it was not unnatural that the same ex- 
pedient should occur to those who were solicitous 
for still further amendments. Besides which, the 
proximity of the New England states to each oth- 
er, and the continuity of the line of their maritime 



S7 

frontier, aeemed to demand, in the progress of 
the war, a unity of plan of defensive operations, 
that should comprehend the whole, under what- 
soever authority it might be conducted — as much 
so, for instance, as Virginia might have required 
such a plan for herself. And their inhabitants, 
being the same people, with institutions, civil and 
military, differing only by almost imperceptible 
shades, and assimilated in all their habits and 
modes ol conducting public affairs, might readily 
have been expected to devise for the exigency 
better means than could suddenly have been sug- 
gested by those whose attention was called to a 
more extensive theatre. But since the epoch of 
that Convention%new views, and subjects of grave 
and more deliberate reflection, are opened upon 
most minds, in the rapid settlement of our newly 
acquired regions. As the number of states aug- 
ments, a greater scope is afforded for imaginary 
diversities of local interests, and for powerful co- 
alitions to extort concessions from the Union. It 
is more easy to forsee (with the opportunity that 
time has afforded for ruminating upon these new 
and interesting relations) than it would be either 
wise or decorous to specify, disadvantages inci- 
dent to these partial Conventions ; and it is, there- 
fore, not to be wished that resort should be had to 
them, even for the attainment of constitutional 
objects. 

Unless I am greatly deceived, the following 
inferences conclusively result from the facts and 
authorities cited in the foregoing letters:—. 

1, That the members of the Hartford Cenvcn- 
tion were deputies from states and counties, which 
are responsible for their doings. 

2, That the aim and proceedings of the framers 
and members of it, can be estimated only from 
the documentary evidence appertaining to the 
subject. 

3, That this evidence exhibits no feature of a 



38 

plan adverse to the union of the states, or the sue-* 
cess of the war. 

4. That, on the contrary, its objects were to 
strengthen the union, and to defend the country. 

5. That they violated neither law or constitu- 
tion, and the effect of their doings was an assuage- 
ment of the discontents in the Eastern states. 

6. That the only two indulgencies which they 
proposed to ask of government, one (namely the 
faculty of raising a local force under their own 
officers j had been substantially granted before ap- 
plication could be made, and that a provision for 
the other (namely, the payment of the militia) had 
passed the Senate of the U. States, and was pend- 
ing in the House when peace took place. 

7. That the grievances and complaints desig- 
nated in the report, are the same with those which 
were alleged by the opposition out of New Eng- 
land. 

Those friends of their country, will not be anx- 
ious to resist these conclusions, who regard its 
progress towar is greatness and happiness as con- 
nected with the extirpation of local prejudices, 
and the assendancy of that sympathy of national 
feeling which should unite us as a people. It could 
not be conducive to the interests of the states 
South or West of New-England, to establish the 
fact, that in the infancy of this confederacy, that 
important section, or even a considerable portion 
of its inhabitants, were disposed to secede from 
it. Such a persuasion could not fail to affect 
the comfort and diminish the confidence of every 
well wisher to its duration, who should consider 
this disposition as betraying a hcartlessness and 
inconstancy unequal to sustain the trial of adver- 
sity, which there could be no foundation to con- 
clude would be confined to geographical limits. 
New-England, it should be recollected, was the 
birth- place of American Union. It was in these 
ancient provinces, that, nearly two centuries ago, 
the first project of union for their own defence 



39 

was matured. And these are the colonies which 
united again to protect not only themselves but 
their sister colonies from the bayonet and toma- 
hawk, which elevated the name and glory of 
British America in the estimation of the world, 
and confounded the schemes of France for its en- 
tire subjugation, by their achievements at Louis- 
bourgh and Crown Point ; and in Acadia and 
Canada, on many memorable occasions. It was 
in New-England that the rights of the colonies 
were first promulgated ; that the watchword ^'join 
or die^** was thundered from her mountains ; and 
it was New-England blood that first cried from 
the ground at Lexington and Charlestown, for 
vengeance and for union. When the old confe- 
deration was expiring of incurable debility, the 
great mass of the New England people displayed 
their solicitude tor a system of more perfect uni- 
on, and hailed the adoption of the new consti- 
tution with joyful acclaim as the consummation 
of their best hopes. It is also known, that in that 
country the children pass from leading strings to 
schools, where they are accustomed to the res- 
traints of discipline, and respect for authority,and 
where Washington's address is bound up in their 
books of elementary instruction. If, then, a peo- 
ple of this character, whose manners, customs, 
morals and institutions have been moulded by 
time, into the consistency which steady habits, 
industrious occupations, local attachments, and 
strong prepossessions in favor of a federal govern- 
ment conceived almost in the cradle, may be 
supposed to impart — If, I say, such a people, or 
their chosen and distinguished men, in the first 
hour of trial — apostates from the example of their 
ancestors^ and false to themselves — were capable 
of compassing the destruction of the fair fabrick 
of a constitution reared by their own hands — what 
reliance could be place^l upon the adhesion of any 
other section of these states to the union, in any 
future conflicts of real or imaginary interests ? 



40 

Whereon can repose our confidence in the firm- 
ness and constancy of states, whose ties are of re- 
cent origin, when those which all the considera- 
tions of mutual interests, dangers, sufferings, suc- 
ce3s,prosperity and glory should have bound with 
indissoluble strictness, are held together by so 
frail a ligature ? Into what obscurity must sink 
the splendid visions of those who flatter them- 
selves that the problem is atlength soked, where- 
by national sentiment, under the guidance of fed- 
eral wisdom, will triumph over the obstacles of 
geographical boundaries, the repulsion of local 
habits, the affinities of clannish interests, the en- 
thusiasm of torrid and the phlegm of frigid cli- 
mates, the restlessness of foiled ambition, and 
unprincipled intrigue ? Well may they say fare- 
well I a long farewell, to all our greatness. 

To conclude : — The causes of the prejudices 
that have so generally prevailed against the East- 
ern states may be consolidated into one — an op- 
position of sentiment steadily manifested by one 
or more ot those states, in their agsregate capa- 
city', to the policy of the late administrations, and 
ot the war. Much has been occasionally said of 
their opposition in fact', of combinatioHs to pre- 
vent loans; and of others to cramp the southern 
banks by exhausting their specie These charges 
are universally known, by all who have had pa- 
tience to attend to the rambling suggestions on 
which they rest, as idle dreams or malignant ca- 
lumnies. There is more color of truth in the ac* 
cusation of their withdrawing the militia from 
the service of the United States : yet it is merely 
color. The militia were not withheld from the 
service,, but, in some instances, from the command 
of officers of the United States ; at first through 
constitutional doubts in the Executive, and lat- 
terly {when those doubts were surmounted or wav* 
ed^) through difficulties and collisions among of- 
ficers and men, which the Executives of those 



41 

states could not reconcile or control.* But the 
service never suffered for an instant. 1 he mili- 
tia was constantly in requisition and on the alert. 
And such was the intelligence subsisting, and 
the arrangements made, between the execu ive 
of Massachusetts and the principal officers ot the 
navy and army of the United States, for acting in 
concert, v/hen occasion should require, as placed 
the country in the best possible slate of defence, 
with the means at their disposal.! No impedi- 
ments were offered to the enlistment of troops, 
and at least a full proportion of the regular army, 
and of the best regiments, were Yankees. All 
the taxes were paid, and all the legal requisitions 
of government, with the single qualification of 
the militia controversy, obeyed. The public opi- 
nion alone was unaccommodating ; and the duty 
which is performed under a sense of its obliga- 
tory nature, is not always the less meritorious 
when accompanied by a sacrifice of opinion. 

Since the restoration of peace, the temper ma- 
nifested in the Eastern States by the men who 
have been supposed to possess the greatest influ- 
ence, bears no stamp of a systematic opposition. 
The history of parties, in no period of the world, 
presents a parallel of so general a cessation of 
inimical demonstrations towards men, when mea- 
sures have ceased to be obnoxious, as they have 
exhibited. In no instance have the views of ad- 

* The militia of Massachusetts was organized upon 
the system of Steuben, and the regulations for detailing' 
the companies, from the War Department, (without any 
law of the United States to that purpose,) broke up the 
companies, and, by throwing some officers out of com- 
mand and detaching others from their men, excited the 
most serious dissatisfaction among all. 

f Ths, though so contrary to the general impression, 
is a most solemn truth, supported by overwhelming evi- 
dence now on the files of the Congress of the United 
States, and, as to Boston and its vicinity, admitted under 
the hands of the Secretary of the Navy, in a letter to 
Commodore Bainbridge, 



42 

ministration been traversed by therft in any shape 
of party opposition. Believing that the elements 
of he policy which they always approved, have 
gradually found favor with people and govern- 
ment, they shew no sympioms of spleen or dis- 
appointment. While they refrain from insincere 
and humiliating recantations, that would only 
merit contempt, they no longer throw the gaunt- 
let in defence of opinions and theories, many of 
which, applied to a ptisture of affairs and a state 
of parlies, which can hardly recur, and others of 
"whicli could only produce unavailing disputes. 
We hear of no taunting allusions to what might 
have been the consequences ot a protract^ war, 
nor of any disposition to attack the vantage ground 
of its friends, by ascribing in any degree to for- 
tune, what they claim for valor and for wisdom. 
Judging from their conduct, they are consoled 
for the loss of their popularity, by the occasional 
homage paid to their prmciples, and, if the nation 
prosper, they care not under what auspices the 
blessing is attained. 

It would seem, then, to be a favorable moment 
for the citizens of this extensive and goodly heri- 
tage, to consider in how many points their real 
interests accord, and in how few they differ. 
Provincial distinctions of dialect, of customs, pur- 
suits, and interests, with incomparably deeper 
marks than can be found among us, prevail in al- 
most every other great nation, without checking 
the honest predilections which the free people of 
a common country ought to cherish for each other. 
To all who reflect upon the irresistible impul- 
ses,by which this immense empire is,and must be, 
moved, and upon the obstructions to which its vast 
machinery is liable at home and abroad, it must 
be obvious that not only the force and skill of 
those who superintend its direction, but a spirit 
of co-operation and mutual confidence are ne- 
cessary to regulate its movement. And those, 
of all others, will have the least to boast on the 



43 

scoreof patriotism, who, in their professions of 

that rare viriue, mingle those bitter recollections 

and merciless invectives, which, in other nations, 

have kept alive the enmity of parties, through the 

magic of>names, and the implacable resentnients 

of individuals and families, (long after the causes 

oftheori^rinal feuds have been forgotten) to the 

constant discomfort of the people, and final ruin 

of the state. 

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